1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of handover in a wireless network, and more particularly, a method of handover which includes, if it is determined that a first access point is not storing requested data and that a second access point is storing the requested data, then initiating a handover of the user equipment to the second access point.
2. Description of the Related Art
Demand for wireless services is increasingly rapidly as evident by the tremendous growth in recent years in smart mobile phones. This explosive growth in data traffic and its bandwidth requirements have already saturated the current generation of cellular networks and will continue to pose a major bandwidth challenge for next generation of cellular networks (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) based networks). Thus, while LTE networks will have greater capacity than current networks, they will carry significantly larger data traffic over both the radio and the backhaul links.
LTE network architecture consists of user equipments (UE) (e.g., handheld devices such as a mobile phone, laptops, etc.) that connect to the eNodeB's which are access points, which then connect to the backhaul core network. One of the major problems in such a network is for UE to decide which eNodeB to connect to and the transfer of this connection from one eNodeB to another, which is referred to as “handover” in cellular terminology.
In addition, future wireless devices will be multi-standard and will have the capabilities to operate on different wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, WiMax, etc. The UEs will then have to choose an access point among many such technologies.
Current solutions to handover and eNodeB access are based on network/radio characteristics and/or policy based priorities. For example, a UE generally connects to an eNodeB for which the radio signal strength is above a threshold or with the highest signal strength. A UE may also connect to eNodeBs with some priority depending on the subscription category, where premium subscribers have availability of more access points than regular subscription.